Chapter Two: Camp Nightmoon

As the creatures approached us, we all had our backs to each others. "I never thought I go out this way," Naruto said, "Why didn't I have that cup of ramen before I got on the bus?"

The creatures were only inches away from us when something happened. A lighting shape arrow struck one of the monsters in the forehead, causing it to explode and disappear. We were all surprised by this attack and looked around for a source.

Suddenly, an explosion from behind us destroyed one of the monsters as well. We turned around just in time to see two more arrows destroy two more monsters followed by another explosion. Where was all of this coming from?

The monsters slowly backed up and began to head back into the woods leaving us alone. "Heh," someone said with a satisfied tone of voice, "That got rid of them. Looks like they won't bother us again, huh?"

We turned around and saw two people walk into the clear. One of them was a teenage boy dressed in white from head to toe. The only real color that was different one him besides his skin was his black hair. He wore thin square glasses and held a large bow with his hand.

The other person was an older man with white and gray messy hair. He had a few hairs on his chin and wore thin glasses, similar to the teenager's. He wore a suit and pressed pants. He also had his hands in his pants pockets for some reason.

Just after we saw them, another bus pulled up with a different driver. We were relieved to see this bus and get out of here, but we were kind of still nervous with that last experience. "Wh-wha-what was that?!" Naruto asked the man.

He seemed to ignore him because he then said, "Hello, my name is Takahata Takamichi T. I am the camp director and I like to welcome you to Camp Nightmoon."

"What were those things?" Ryoma said glancing back at the path the creatures took to escape. He didn't seem has nervous as the rest of us still were, but he seemed shaken up by the experience.

"Nothing more than a couple of Hollows," he said, "Nothing you need to worry about with me as the camp director and Uryu here as one of the people who'll protect the camp grounds from theses creatures."

We all glanced at each other. He acted like those things were no big deal, but I had a bad feeling about this. We picked up our bags and headed into the new bus. We drove for a bit until the bus stopped and let out all the girls.

"Maybe I'll see you later?" Sakura said to me as she past, "But if not, it was nice to meet you."

The bus continued to move along after this drop off, over a bridge, and to a different clearing where a big sign greeted us. It read, "Welcome to Camp Nightmoon" on it in big green and yellow lettering that looked like it was painted recently.

When we stopped in the middle of the field, we saw a row of several white cabins lined up side to side with a 10 foot gap between them. Past them was a bigger building that stood on top of a hill, I guess it was like the mess hall or the main office. There were also three little path ways at the edge of the forest on all different sides, probably meaning they all lead to different areas around the camp.

I looked out the window and saw 3 older teens working on what appeared to be a bonfire. "Hey," I said to Max, "Looks like we'll be having a bonfire tonight."

"That seems cool," Max said calmly, "Just as long as there is no more of those Hollows things Takahata mention."

Takahata stood up at the front of the bus and said to us, "Alright everybody, welcome to Camp Nightmoon! Enjoy the beautiful feel nature that now surrounds us for miles. If you have any questions, feel free to ask one of your counselors or me. In just a moment, you'll be separate into different bunks with its own counselor. Unpack there and I'll see you all later at the campfire."

We all filed on out of there and out our assigned bunks. I would be bunking with Ryoma, Naruto, and Max in Bunk Four. We all took our bags and walked into the bunk. It was cozy and the windows provided enough light. There were 5 beds; two of them were bunk beds while the other one was a single bed. Next to each bed was a counter with two drawers built in so we could put our stuff in it.

That bed was already taken. There was already a backpack next to it with a few books that looked a bit advance for us and there was a digital clock also bugged in next to it. "Must belong to our counselor," I thought to myself as I moved towards one of the beds.

"Hey Ash," Max said to me as I reached the bunk, "Mind if I take the bottom bunk? I always get the feeling that if I sleep on the top one, I'll roll right off it."

"Sure no problem," I said to him. I already wanted the top bunk anyways. I looked over at the other bunk and saw Naruto already climbing on top while Ryoma just collapsed onto the bottom bunk.

The door opened up and we all glanced towards the opening. He was about 15 or 16, he had bright orange hair and an annoyed look on his face. He was definitely taller than us and mostly stronger. "What's up?" he asked us as he dropped a bag in front of us, "This is bed gear. Make sure you make your beds and at least try to make them look as good as mine?"

He sounded like he didn't want to be here and he acted like he already didn't like us. I decided to talk to him, so I asked, "Umm… are you our counselor?"

"I suppose so," he said glancing away from us and out the window, "Listen, I got to get going so…"

Without saying a word other than that, he turned around and headed for the door. "Wait a minute," Naruto said, "Who are you?"

"Oh…" he said turning around, "I suppose I should tell you. My name is Ichigo Kurosaki."

"O.k. then," Max said setting down his bag on a counter, "My name is…"

Ichigo put up his hand and said, "Don't bother. I probably won't remember you name even if you tell me. Oh yeah, don't touch my stuff." And with those words, he walked out of the room and back outside.

"Well wasn't he cheerful?" I said looking at the door closing behind our counselor.

"Very friendly," Ryoma mumbled pulling his backpack up next to him and reaching into it to pull out a tennis magazine to read.

Naruto chuckled and Max smiled. I tossed my bag onto my bed so I could go through it. I started up the ladder when something stopped me. It was a scream from Max.

I jumped and asked him, "What's wrong?"

"E-Ekans!" he said with stutter, "There's an Ekans in my bed!" He pointed at his bed while backing away from it. I looked at it, but I couldn't see anything, the light wasn't helping much by not clearing away any of the shadows all over the bed.

"Oh come on," Naruto said with a laugh, "Not that old joke."

"Ichigo probably just put it in there just as a joke," Ryoma said not really moving from his spot.

"He doesn't seem kind like the person to joke you know," I said to him.

"But there really is an Ekans in my bed!" Max said trying to convince us.

Naruto rolled his eyes and jumped out of his bed. He walked over to the bed and looked at it. "Look!" he said looking at it closer, "I don't see any stupid little… what the!?"

I glanced over at the bed myself and saw some moving underneath the covers. I carefully lifted up the sheets and threw them back to reveal a small Ekans hissing at us. "Whoa," Ryoma said walking over to take a peek, "I guess you were right."

"You think its poisonous?" I asked them.

"It's pretty young," Max said nervously, "Once Ekans grow to be more than one year old, they then develop poison. This one is probably only 4 months old."

"You think we should get Ichigo or Takahata in here to deal with this thing?" Ryoma asked with a frown.

"Oh come on," Naruto said giving him a look, "We can handle this thing. There's four of us and only one of it, right?"

"Sure," I said with a nod, "All we need to do is cover it up with the blanket and release it outside of here." They all nodded and Max made the first move for one of the corners of the sheets, but he slipped and feel onto the bed!

Without a moment hesitation, the Ekans bit down deep into Max's hand and released it quickly. Two small holes now appeared on his hands as blood dripped from his wounds. Max moaned in pain and fell to the ground saying, "Aw man! It's hurts!"

Naruto and Ryoma quickly went to his aid leaving me to deal with the Ekans. I quickly wrapped it up in the blanket without it biting me and headed outside. I ran for a little bit until I was near the edge of the forest where I dropped the Ekans at.

I quickly ran back to cabin to find Max now sitting on his bed with the other two examining his wounds. "Looks bad," Ryoma said, "You should get to the nurse right away!"

"Yeah," Max said biting the bottom of his lip in agony, "Man it hurts!" Naruto helped Max up and both of them left together.

"We better go tell Ichigo about this," I said to Ryoma, "He probably should know about this since we are apart of his group." He nodded and we both headed off around the camp.

We search the area around here except for the trails that lead out into the woods. We then headed into the main building that turned out to be the Mess Hall. There were many tables set up next to each other and at the far end of one of the walls was a giant fireplace. He wasn't in there either.

As we exited the building, we walked into Ichigo who was about to enter. "Oh you guys," he said to us without the least bit of surprise, "You guys already finish making your beds? Probably didn't do a good job."

"Hey!" Ryoma said, "There you are! We had a problem we could of used your help with a while back! A baby Ekans had crawled into Max's bed and bit him."

"That probably hurt," he said without the least bit of empathy.

"Like you care or not," I said with disgust with the lack of concern he had, "But it's all taken care of now and Naruto is taking Max to the nurse's office to have him checked out."

"Wait a minute," Ichigo said with a confused look, "Where'd you send him?"

"We sent him to the nurse's office," I said, "The wound looked pretty bad!"

Then at that moment, Ichigo's expression changed to a smirk and a chuckle. "What nurse?" he said, "Takahata doesn't want us to coddle you guys, and we agree with him. That's why Camp Nightmoon doesn't have a nurse."

Back at the bunk after Naruto and Max came back, Ichigo applied some bandages around Max's wound. "You got to be more careful," Ichigo said after applying the bandages on the wound, "The creatures around here can get a little wild, if you want to survive this camp, you always got to be on the alert."

I wasn't sure if the survive thing was a joke or not. He seemed dead serious judging by the tone of voice he used. "Oh yeah," Ichigo said glancing around the room, "How did you get the Ekans out of here anyways?"

"I used the covers on Max's bed to wrap the Pokemon in it and then I took it out to be released by the woods," I said.

"Really?" Ichigo asked seeming surprise, "Not bad. But next time, try leaving this to us counselors. Anyways, I got to get going again. I'll see you at the campfire tonight. Try not to get bitten again."

The rest of the day was rather slow after that incident. Max's hand swollen up, it looked pretty bad but at least it was fixed as best as it could despite the fact we didn't have a nurse. It seemed kind of weird not to have a nurse out in the middle of the forest around here, but I guess it is pretty much up to the camp director on if they should have a nurse or not.

The night soon fell upon the camp, drowning us in a deep pitch black sky where no stars or moon shined down on us. The only really light that came in the area was the big camp fire at the edge of the forest or from the Mess Hall. We all headed down to the fire where the counselors, Takahata, and the rest of the campers were.

It was easy to spot the counselors, they all wore white shirts, and green shorts, except for Ichigo; he wore a gray jacket, gray pants, and black tennis shoes. The counselors handed us sticks, hot dogs, and buns. Considering Max's hand was swollen, he had a hard time put the dog on the stick so I had to help him.

We all sat together on a log while the other bunks sat with each other. We were all settle, Takahata, who had changed into more appropriate clothing for the outdoors while keeping his hands in his pockets, stood up and began to speak, "Welcome all to Camp Nightmoon! I hope you all already unpacked and got a chance to look around the camp grounds already to see where everything is."

He talked a bit fast, as if he wanted to get the speech over with, but then he slowed down and said, "First rule everyone, lights out at 9:00 sharp!"

A few boys moaned in response, but Takahata continued, "Ignore the rule or not, but we will not tolerate anyone who breaks the rule. Also, there is a river in which we will be swimming in. Across that river is the girls' camp, no one is allowed over there from our camp, and the girls can't come over to our camp either."

There was a bit of mumbling, but Takahata just continued as if he didn't hear anything, "Also, these woods are not safe to walk alone in at night. Nighttime is when most of the Ursaring and even more dangerous Hollows all come out to hunt. So no middle night walks, and even leaving the cabin at night can be dangerous. Sometimes these things even make it into camp."

A few of the campers gulp while other glanced around at each other. Why would our parents send us to such a dangerous place? "But don't be too scared," Takahata said trying to ease our concerns, "The hollows are mostly killed before they even get near camp, and Ursaring will only attack if you provoke them so don't worry. But if you are to be attack by an Ursaring, Shusuke Fuji here will demonstrate the proper procedure to deal with one."

After the demonstration, Takahata then said, "I hope you all paid attention to that, we are not showing you again."

"Umm…" Naruto said nervously raising his hand, "Has there ever been an attack by one of these things?"

"We had two last summer," Takahata said in a serious voice, "Wasn't very pretty, you can guess what happened." I didn't want to, but many ideas and guesses already flooded into my head.

"One last thing before we call this a night," he said, then he pointed to a dark outline of a building far away in the forest, "You see that cabin over there? I hope you do, because you are not allowed to go over there for any reason. It's called the Forbidden Bunk. It's been closed down and boarded up for many years."

"Why do you call it forbidden?" Ryoma asked, "Is there any problems with it or something?"

"We never talk about it and its bad history," Takahata said with a dead voice, but then it changed to a more cheerful sounding voice, "One last rule! We encourage and want you to write to your parents everyday! We want them to know how much fun and what you are doing here!"

That wasn't much of a problem for me. I wanted to send my mom a letter and ask her why sent me to such a dangerous place. I glanced at Max who was holding his hand. "Still hurts?" I asked him.

"It really does hurt a lot," he mumbled.

"Better ask Ichigo if he has anything he can put on it," I told him.

Takahata then dismissed us for the night. I yawned and stretched a bit. I was a bit sleepy. It had been a long day so far and all I wanted to do was sleep. A few more people seemed to yawn as they got up to walk back to their cabins.

"Hey," Max said to me, "Where's our counselor? I don't see him anywhere?" I glanced around the area and at all the people leaving the fire. I didn't see him anywhere.

"Probably already is back at the cabin," I reassured Max, "Don't worry, he should know what to do." Max nodded and sighed.

"Hey man," Naruto said walking up to us with Ryoma walking behind him, "We should check out the Forbidden Bunk! I got see what's up with that place!"

"But Takahata already said…" I said to him.

"Whatever," Naruto said rolling his eyes, "I got to check it out soon!"

I glanced at Ryoma who was looking away and towards the woods. He had his eyes trained on that single spot for a while and then they seemed to widen. "Hey…" he said slowly, "Did you just hear something?"

"Hear what?" we asked.

"It sounded like animal howls," he said. We listened for a little bit, but we could hear nothing, not even the wind.

"You're just imagining things," Max said to him, "Let's just go back to the…" Suddenly, there was a loud gruesome howling sound that sprung forth from the woods. A deep ice cold shiver went straight through me as I listen to the sound.

"Wh-what was that?" I asked starting to shake. We were all terrified by this sound, and the next one that followed. It was another creature screaming out in pain while the original one seemed to roar with delight. We the heard some disgusting sounding echo that rang throughout the woods as if something was being eaten alive.

We all began to back up slowly still looking in the direction of the sound. Naruto then said, "Those sounds…. I-I think they're… coming from the… Forbidden Bunk!"

Author Notice: Nothing really to say at the moment, but I hope to get more people and reviewers in the future.

In the next chapter, our fours friends return back to their cabin in fright to try to figure out what just happened. Then the next day, more trouble happens when one of them is injured on purpose, but no one seems to care. But the main issue comes when there is a camp out and there is no protection guarding our friends…

Date: 10/14/07

Next to Come: Chapter Three: Ominous Situations

Reviewer: Shadow Guardian of the Gate